4/25/2005 06:16:00 pm -
Reported by
Shaun Lyon

April 25, 2005 • Posted By Shaun Lyon

The BBC Press Office has posted new program information and highlights for Week 19 (7û13 May). The Featuresdocument (a PDF file) does not have a Doctor Who article this week, although it does include a short snippet on David Tennant: "David Tennant, confirmed as the 10th Doctor Who, declares: 'I grew up loving Doctor Who and it has been a lifelong dream to get my very own TARDIS.' Tennant, whose recent credits include BBC Three's Casanova, BBC One's Blackpool and He Knew He Was Right, will star alongside Billie Piper, who returns as Rose Tyler." The 7-day document ofhighlights (again, a PDF file) previews Saturday 7 May's The Long Game, in usual spoiler-ish manner... which we've placed in the SPOILER tags below for your convenience. (This is also available as part of the smaller Saturdaydocument).

BBC News has a great article up about next weekend's episode, "Dalek", including several photos from the episode. "The new series of Doctor Who has seen Christopher Eccleston fight living dummies, restless spirits and aliens disguised as MPs, but he has yet to face his mortal enemies The Daleks," says the article. "That will be rectified in a forthcoming episode entitled simply Dalek, in which the Time Lord finds that one of the metal killing machines has been collected by an unsuspecting billionaire." It notes the licensing problems that nearly prevented them from appearing in the series, as well as quotes from several people involved in the production. "The Daleks of the 1960s and 1970s would not make the grade today," says director Joe Ahearne. "They would be seen as comical rather than frightening. We couldn't have that." Mike Tucker of the model unit says, "We have taken all the perceived weaknesses of the Dalek and made them deadly," while Barnaby Edwards, who occupies the Dalek model itself, says, "I was inside the Dalek for as many shots as possible, so Chris had someone to play off rather than just talking to an empty shell." Says Nick Briggs, who voices the Dalek, "Roughly a third of the lines in the episode are either spoken by the Dalek or Rose. It never shuts up!" And cast member Bruno Langley, who plays Adam, says, "It was great to appear in such an important episode. My character gets on very well with Rose, which of course makes the Doctor jealous."

Interviewed on GMTV on Friday, Noel Clarke (Mickey) says he'll return for the second season. No word as yet on who else will be joining the cast for the second year...

The tenth Doctor... in a kilt? The Sunday Mail says that David Tennant "wants to be the first Time Lord to wear the kilt. The Paisley-born actor, 33, said it was time the character had a new dress code." "I would love to be the first Time Lord to wear a kilt," Tennant says. "And I intend to speak with a full Scottish lilt when I make it into the Tardis." Also reported at Digital Spy,

From what we can gather, BBC Radio One and BBC television will be doing some rather extensive publicity for the forthcoming Dalek episode starting today (Monday). The BBC have begun to promote next Saturday's episode with a 30 second trailer. The trailer opens with the TARDIS in the vortex, before moving into a clip of the Doctor's first encounter with the Dalek. As the Dalek is revealed and speaks the theme comes in. The trailer ends with a shot of Billie and Chris in the TARDIS from one of the specially shot trailers. The trailer was shown Sunday, immediately after "Points Of View", at approx 5.05pm.

Play.com are running a "Doctor Who" DVD promotion which is highlighted on their DVD home page with a small picture of Tom Baker and Terry Molloy's Davros, under the banner "Doctor Who Classics". Following the link opens a page headed with the line "Doctor Who? Remind yourself of why we all love the time travelling dalek-fighter so much with these timeless classics!"

On 24th April BBC Ceefax ran a 5-page TV Feature entitled "New Guise For The Doctor's Assistant" which was an interview with Billie Piper, opening with: "For singer-turned-Dr Who actress Billie Piper, coming to terms with the scale of her new show was a gradual process." Billie is quoted as saying: "I did have an idea of how big it was going to be... But I made a conscious effort not to think about the sheer amount of work and all the anticipation and expectation surrounding the show. It's only now I'm starting to see it. And it's quite scary." The item moves on to discuss her split with husband Chris Evans ("I would never ever say that Doctor Who is responsible for my divorce"), acting opposite alien creatures ("It was quite funny...to see all those grown men just fall to the floor when they saw the Dalek"), missing out on other high profile roles ("I audition a lot and there's so much I don't get") and her close friendship with Christopher Eccleston ("Me and Chris shared a lot together... The last eight months have been heavy both in terms of schedule and personal life. So we've been forced together and joined at the hip. It's been a very intense relationship").

Saturday's The Guardian reported on Christopher Eccleston doing a voiceover for the Channel 4 documentary "Porn Shutdown," which airs Monday at 11.05pm, "as lucid and informative an introduction to the Californian sex industry as you could want. If you knew absolutely nothing about modern pornography this programme could leave you speechless and disturbed." Eccleston narrates the very frank documentary.

The MediaWatch website reports on a story that ran in the 18 April 2005 edition of the Daily Express. Under the headline "Dr Who crucifixion really spoons Beyer off", the story reads: "TodayÆs Express reports that episode six of the BBCÆs hit series Dr Who contains some foul language and offensive imagery, despite its pre-watershed scheduling. According to The Express, 'Media watchdogs' - ie John Beyer of Mediawatch UK - have condemned the show, which depicts an evil character telling one of his henchmen to 'canoodle and spoon' with the DoctorÆs assistant, Rose. Van Stratten also tortures the Doctor by binding him to a crucifix with metal shackles. Beyer has branded the BBC 'irresponsible' for including such inappropriate imagery and language: 'This is not a programme designed for children [à] I am surprised the BBC have gone with this, they should have been more attentive to youngsters....Apparently a certain religious group believe they have a patent on that particular form of torture, and regard anything resembling it as a breach of copyright. This grants them the opportunity to take public offence."

The current edition of the Pink Paper (issue 871) - the national UK free LGBT newspaper - has a story on page 3 entitled "Who-ray! the doctor is in" (accompanied by a colour photograph of the TARDIS). The story reports that a fund-raising auction is to be held on 1 May at the Cardiff Mardi Gras Pink Ball: "One lucky Doctor Who fan is to get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit the infamous Tardis and meet the cast of the new BBC series courtesy of Cardiff-Wales Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras." The story goes on to say that postal bids for the prize are also welcome, which must be sent by 25 April together with name, address and telephone number to Matthew Bailey (Doctor Who auction), Safer Cardiff, 2nd Floor, Terminus Building, Wood Street, Cardiff, CF10 1EQ. The story is also highlighted at the top of the front page of the paper - again with a (part)photo of the TARDIS - under the headline "BLUE IS THE COLOUR: Gays to win trip in Tardis. The online version of the Pink Paper, is currently running an edited version of this story on its front page under the headline "Who-ray- the Doctor's in".

The May edition of the magazine "Cult Times" carries a 3-page interview with Billie Piper: "Billie Piper on her hopes for a musical episode" states the cover. On the musical episode itself Billie says: "I love Buffy. And I love Buffy the musical. That's a really great show. I'm trying to convince Russell to write one, and I think he will as long as he can star in it."

Saturday evening's new series "National Lottery Come And Have A Go", which immediately followed "World War Three", showed a clip from next week's Dalek episode. Several trailers have been seen playing on BBC stations in the UK. Meanwhile, "Doctor Who" references continue to crop up on ITV's "Ministry Of Mayhem". On Saturday's edition characters used a bigger-on-the-inside MFI cupboard to 'transport' themselves from the studio to the car park, making the "Doctor Who" link obvious with the line "Who needs a TARDIS?".

Doctor Who has once again appeared on the BBC's popular satirical news quizHave I got News For You. This time the series appeared as part of the "Odd one out" round where the four choices were Andrew Marr, Peter Purves, The Beatles and Rodrey Morgan. Any fans watching will have telegraphed the Doctor Who connection immediately, as did Paul Merton who is slowly revealing some whovian leanings. He also mentioned how much he enjoyed last weeks episode, provoking regret from Ian Hislop for not seeing it himself upon hearing that the Prime minister disapeared - something he and a lot of us really wish might happen. (Oh and the odd one out was Rodrey Morgan, as the others have appeared in the series and he almost appeared when mistaken for an extra a while back...)

The CBBC's Newsroundwebsite has the poll "How Scary Is Doctor Who?" ("Do you hide behind the sofa or laugh your socks off?") on its homepage, allowing site visitors to vote in four categories: Terrifying!, Quite Scary, A bit tame or It's rubbish! . As of Saturday, the winning vote was Quite Scary with 39.50%.

ITV Teletext's "TV Plus" section had Saturday's episode as it's 'pick', billed as "Dr Who's Timeless Excitements" and contained a brief preview in which it describes last week's episode as "vintage Dr Who" and ends with: "Peppered with in-jokes, hilariously hum-drum details and Russell T Davies's trademark dialogue, this is pacy, satisfying television, which remains just the right side of kitsch.". In addition the letters page of the same section is headed "Brit sci-fi is TV's future" and contains a letter in praise of "Doctor Who".

Some other weekend press mentions: another Scotsman article about David Tennant, about his role in "Horace Can't Help It"; icWales interviews someone whose grandfather may be the real creator of the Daleks; theicSouth Londonsite discusses reactions to Eccleston's departure from some local viewers and fans, the Sutton Whos; a review of this weekend's "World War Three" can be found in the Herald; and the Sun reports on today's ratings debacle for ITV's Celebrity Wrestling, Doctor Who's competitor in the 7pm Saturday time slot.

Adam Mitchell discovers that life as a Time Lord's companion isn't as easy as it looks, as Russell T Davies's adventure through space and time continues. Adam catches a glimpse of the wonders of travelling in the Tardis, as they head to a future where Satellite 5 broadcasts to the entire Earth Empire. But anyone promoted to Floor 500 is never seen again, and the Doctor suspects mankind is being manipulated. Nothing escapes the eye of the sinister Editor û but just who is he working for? And does Adam have what it takes to become the Time Lord's companion?

Christopher Eccleston stars as the Doctor, Billie Piper is Rose, Bruno Langley is Adam Mitchell, Simon Pegg is the Editor and Green Wing star Tamsin Grieg is the Nurse.